People have asked me why weíre not more emotional,Ē Matheny said in his office after Sundayís game. ďThey say that we look subdued, always intense. That our actions are methodical, robotic at times. Thatís what got us here. This isnít the time to change it.Ē

Itís hard to argue with the managerís assessment. The Cardinals finished with 97 victories, most by a Cards team since 2005, and tied with Boston for No. 1 in the majors this year.

Their 54-27 showing at Busch Stadium matches the 1985 team for the best single-season home winning percentage (.667) by the Cardinals since 1944.

A postseason theme has emerged, and it echoes the mantra that surfaced before the start of 2013: remember the fall of 2012. Remember falling to San Francisco in the NLCS.

The Cardinalsí veterans still havenít forgotten. They still arenít over it. Itís why Matheny resists GM John Mozeliakís urgings to smile and put on a happier face.

Here's the most impressive aspect of the Cardinals' division championship: they prevailed over two other outstanding teams, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

The 97-win Cardinals were better this year (regular season) than they were in 2011, when they won 90 games, and 2012, when they won 88.
Here are a few numbers that help put the Cardinals' Central title and No. 1 NL seed in perspective:

* Since MLB switched to a three-division format in each league in 1994, this was only the sixth time that a division had three 90-plus win teams. St. Louis won 97, Pittsburgh 94, and Cincinnati 90.
* Since the format change, this was only the second time that an NL division had three 90-win teams. In 2002 the NL West had Arizona (98 wins), San Francisco (95) and Los Angeles (92).
* The 2013 Cardinals faced more esteemed and difficult competition at the top of the division than any of the division-winning teams managed by Tony La Russa.

The Pirates were hardly pushovers; the Cardinals had to work like mad and kick in with a strong finish to put the division away, and didn't clinch until Game No. 160.

The Cardinals went 9-10 against Pittsburgh this season and were 11-8 vs. Cincinnati.

The Cardinals won only three of 10 games at PNC Park in Pittsburgh and split the 10 games at Cincinnati. The Cardinals were 6-3 against both teams at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals (1st), Pirates (3rd) and Reds (5th) ranked among the top five in wins in the NL. The three teams were among the top 11 in wins in MLB. All three teams finished in the top five in the majors for best overall ERA, and each were in the top five MLB for best starting-pitching ERA.

The original purpose to this piece was to point out that the Cardinals managed to finish with the league's best record while competing in a division that had three 90-win teams for only the second time in the last 19 years of National League baseball.

Re: the Royals' system... Dayton Moore's success as a talent recruiter and developer depends on Hosmer and Moustakas doing more than show flashes. Like Alex Gordon in his early days, they have show enough to understand the hype but have struggled adjusting.

Billy Butler and Alex Gordon are well above-average major league players developed internally. Butler has succeeded basically from Day 1 (though his power has really only started to show up in HR over the past season and a half).

Gordon actually had a very nice sophomore campaign (.351/.432) before falling off the cliff for a few years and coming back on pace and living up to expectations.

I'd also point to Sal Perez, who has finally reached a full season's worth of career at-bats in the bigs and has hit .300+ while slugging in the .450 range.

But all that falls apart if one of Hosmer/Moustakas doesn't become a legitimate above-average player and the other at least average.

Using Myers/Montgomery/Odorizzi to add Shields and Davis is not a bad move, IMO. That's how a deep farm system SHOULD be leveraged.

As for the pitching prospects... John Lamb's Tommy John surgery was extremely bad luck. That was the best guy out of that group, IMO. And he looks like he might be the 1/10 guys that never comes all the way back.

They got some use out of Montgomery after he started to bust, and full value for Odorizzi.

That leaves Chris Dwyer (who actually is healthy and pitching pretty well at Omaha) and Danny Duffy (who looked very promising before TJ last year). I think they'll get good value out of Duffy as a solid No. 3 starter in the majors, and Dwyer can be a valuable trade piece, IMO.

My point:
The book still is open on the top-ranked farm system of a few years ago. It depends on Hosmer/Moustakas figuring it out and Danny Duffy coming back strong.

But yeah, some legitimate questions about the Royals minor league approach under Moore. And some questions that will stick about WHY he deviated from his draft strategy in 2010 to take Christian Colon instead of a higher upside college pitcher or high-upside high school guy.

I'd go a step further: other than Greinke, they've been absolutely horrible at developing STARTING pitching, which I guess is the reason they traded for Shields & Davis.

FYP

The injuries to half their first wave of SP prospects are not really avoidable/organization fault. But the lack of SP development under Moore will remain a question until/unless Duffy/Zimmer/Ventura change the script.

I always thought release point was his issue. He just lost his release point and his confidence in letting it rip. Started trying to aim it/dart it and fell apart.

I've always known little about throwing mechanics. I had a similar "yips" moment when trying to throw breaking pitches. I started opening up way early and for a long period of time couldn't accurately throw a baseball from 20 feet away. Really got in my head.

I've always known little about throwing mechanics. I had a similar "yips" moment when trying to throw breaking pitches. I started opening up way early and for a long period of time couldn't accurately throw a baseball from 20 feet away. Really got in my head.

Unless you pitch or coach past little league, there's little reason to study all the intricacies of pitching mechanics. At least when it comes to breaking pitches. So much weird, tiny little things (finger placement is easy, but pressure, release, when the arm pronates, how hard it pronates, elbow position when you snap it off, etc.).

Some guys just have a natural knack for it, and when they lose it, they have a really hard time finding it again. I think Ankiel was one of those guys. I was, too. I hard a hard time throwing a consistent curveball because of my motion/arm slot, but I had a pretty hard-biting slider. And that was just a natural thing I found messing around playing catch.